This invention relates generally to plumbing and chemical dispensing apparatus and methods and particularly to apparatus and methods for dispensing water purification chemicals. Still more particularly, this invention relates to apparatus and methods for distributing chlorine containing compounds into a hot tub, spa or the like.
It is well known that in order to prevent growth of algae and harmful or undesirable bacteria in a hot tub, spa or the like, it is necessary to regularly treat the water in such devices with chlorine. Because of the relatively large volumes of water required to fill an ordinary hot tub, it is wasteful, costly and time consuming to empty and refill the tube for each use. As used herein, the term "hot tub" will be understood to include hot tubs formed of wood, plastic, fiberglass and in general any enclosure for containing heated water in which individuals may place themselves for recreational and theraputic purposes. The amount of chlorine required depends upon the amount of use to which the hot tub is subjected and the material that is in contact with the water. For example, a wooden hot tub is more conducive to growth of contaminants than fiberglass, plastic and concrete.
Hot tubs have become very popular in certain regions of the United States for recreational purposes and have been found to have beneficial theraputic effects because of the soothing effects of the application of heat to sore muscles and joints. There have been efforts made to provide chlorination systems for maintaining a desired amount of chlorine in such devices. The simplest chlorination method is to manually place a desired amount of a water soluble chemical that includes chlorine into the hot tub. The chemical may be in either powdered, granular, or tablet form. Manually chlorinating a hot tub or spa is inconvenient and insufficient to provide the preferred amount of chlorination over extended time periods. Manual addition of chlorine usually results in over-chlorination, causing an unpleasant odor and undesired bleaching of the hair of a person using the hot tub. In manual methods, chlorine is usually not added until the chlorine concentration has fallen below the amount required to prevent the undesirable contamination of the water. Therefore, manual chlorination of the water in a hot tub results in alternate over chlorination and under chlorination.
The chemical commonly used in hot tub chlorination is sold in tablets formed as cylinders having a diameter of about 1 inch and a height of about 0.7 inch. There are chlorinator devices that dispense such tablets; however, prior chlorinator devices are expensive, inconvenient to use and require frequent attention to provide the desired amount of chlorination.
Accordingly there is a need in the art for a chlorination system for a hot tub that dispenses a predetermined amount of chlorine over an extended period of time to maintain the water in the hot tub in an essentially constant state of chlorination.